Personal Fashion Blogs: How Much is Too Much?

How many times have you heard that “exposing” yourself on the internet will make people relate to you, and therefore will secure you a wider following for your personal fashion blog? How many times have you heard that vulnerability makes you a better blogger? How many bloggers with thousands of daily visits do you know that share every move they make, every food they eat, every shoe they wear? Tons. So, is making your private public the way to go? How much is too much?

Personal Fashion Blogs: Balance is the Secret

Like everything in our lives, balance is the secret. I am not one of those crazy-sharing bloggers, but I shared some personal infos here and there.
I am occasionally sharing some parts of my life, but you don’t know exactly what’s going on and I like it like that. You know that I lived in London for almost 2 years and that now I’m back, but you don’t know why and every little thing I went through.

This is why I don’t get people complaining about cyber bullies and haters when they share pictures of themselves in bed with their boyfriends clearly in an after-sex moment. I know that it is a tricky topic, something like “you wore a miniskirt so you basically asked for rape”. (I hope you got the comparison). I guess it really is personal anyway, I don’t like tweeting every place I go to, and I never allow geo-tagging in any social media. It just freaks me out. It must be a reminiscence from the first Internet days when even saying your real name on the internet was “dangerous”.

The Social Media Monster

Curiously enough,while the draft of this post was already half done, IFB came out with this interesting post. It is the other side of the coin, along with how should we manage all of this social media accounts. This will be a topic for another post though, cause my main topic is: what is convenient to share on our personal fashion blogs and what isn’t?

You may say it’s a personal choice, but sometimes it is truly too much, so where should we draw the line?

Sharing photos of each and every room you happen to sleep in, be it yours, a friend’s or a hotel room: too much!

Taking photos of your cat while you’re in the toilet clearly using it: too much!

Tweeting every time is that time of the month: too much!

Writing a post about your house, furniture, interiors: ok!

Taking pictures of every corner of your house where we can see your dirty laundry: too much!

As you can see, it really is tricky. You should double, triple, quadruple check what you’re going to post or share before you actually do it.

And in the end, we don’t wanna know how many times you hover your carpet, how many hair your boyfriend has on his chest, at what time you did wake up today, and we definitely don’t want to read about your errands. Some things are just not interesting, and some are really awkward!

Drawing Conclusions

always share what you are comfortable with, but always think about consequences when you do. Do you really want strangers to know those things about yourself? Remember that anyone could be behind that screen.

Think twice, and ask yourself if your readers would really find that very personal information useful or interesting!

Can you think of some things you bumped into that you really didn’t want to know? Does it bother you to read too much about someone else’s personal life? How much do you share online?

14 thoughts on “Personal Fashion Blogs: How Much is Too Much?”

I enjoy when personal blog authors give “insider” highlights of their trips around town or to other countries, or perhaps talk about a terrible allergy that has occurred while using certain product (photo evidence included). Those experiences can help readers some how.
But posting every detail and picture of your day becomes dull or worst, it becomes voyeuristic content. I agree, unless the “tell all” bloggers have a purpose, I find it too much.

I personally like to separate my personal life from the internet. I want my readers to be my friends not my psychiatrists.
Great article!

Yeah you’re right! At the end of the day it all comes to the rule that “if it’s useful to your readers somehow, it’s fine”. If it’s not, it’s just narcissism, individualism, desperate desire of showing off. And morbid desire of spying into people’s lives! Which we all have I think as human beings, but it somehow scares the hell out of me! It’s stalking mates! ò_ò

I think people share a lot of their personal info online for many reasons, including these two things— wanting to be famous (because famous people get to be shot day to day by paparazzis), and also they might just be lonely. I’ve been following a lot of people who do yoga as some sort of professional hobby, because I’ve been recently obsessed with it. Likewise, I want to post photos or tweet about yoga (and alternative health) because I want to find people who care about the same things.

I’ve unfollowed a lot of people, because the things they’ve put up have just become uninteresting to me (sadly, but I don’t know them personally enough to keep up) or just MIA or unresponsive (the ones that do know me personally, and it hurts).

The things that people share don’t seem so strange when they’re strangers, but when you see someone you know posting things you didn’t know about them, it gets a bid weird. It shouldn’t be though.

PS, I’m with you all the way on 4square! WHY DO PEOPLE DO IT?! I had a friend who did that while we were in the theater. I guess he wanted to hook up with others who happened to be there at the same time?

I totally agree! While it’s good to get personal you don’t want to know every minute detail of a bloggers life! I think when it comes to sharing your personal life it should relate to whatever your blog post is about or what brand message you want to give over social media.

And yeah, I’m with you on the geo-tagging thing. I stopped using foursquare a long time ago because I’ve heard horror stories of online stalkers approaching bloggers where they said they would be. People will know where I’ve been after I’ve been there.

Great post, I wish more people would read this. I think #1 is such a hard balance because you want to be able to relate with your readers and be able to let them see that you’re more than just your daily outfits. But at the same time it is SO easy to post too much. Too much info, too much personal stuff, just too much. I’m pretty private on my blog, as in I never post anything more than my sewing projects and I wish I felt comfortable being at least a little bit more personal, but I guess I should just be happy that I’m not posting too much. Less is more I think in this situation, at least in most instances.

I remember reading a blog and the author got pregnant. I enjoyed her maternity styles, but when she wrote about her giving birth to her child in avid details and later started posting photos of her little kid, it got too much. It is ok to share little bits and pieces, it can even be refreshing, but there is a point when it is too much.
I have had a lot of discussions with friends about my own blog and how I keep it personal, but still keep my privacy. For example, I never share full names of friends and family members and I never ever add any photos of people other than myself. The rule goes also to Instagram and facebook.
I also don’t share anything about my work, what my position is and what I do there on a daily basis. It just isn’t the right thing to do.
I think blogs live off of personal information. I really like to hear little stories, but it is important to keep it in check.
Thx for sharing this post!!!

@Rachel: Yes, i’ve never joined 4square cause it’s creepy! I don’t want people knowing where I am while I ‘m there! I now use Instagram photo map sometimes, but it’s just because I guess it can bring more followers and it can be a nice way to share experiences with other users! But I only do it when I’m in really crowded places like concerts etc! And with friends!!

@MJ: Exactly my thoughts. And yes, I knew some weirdo would do that with 4square sooner or later!!! :/

@Haylee: Yes, it’s all about balance at the end of the day! it’s nice to see SOME personal informations, or events and so on, but it’s easy to slip into the “too much” danger! I like it that way. For example Gala Darling: she shares A LOT but it nevere feels like it’s too much! I don’t know how she can do it. Honestly, it’s magic.

@Anja: EEEEW! Unless it’s a mom4moms blog I don’t get why she would talk about her delivery, child and so on. No, I just disagree. I may accept it on Instagram because it’s all about sharing moments of your life, but not on a blog which is not specifically about children, giving birth, maternity styles and so on!

I’m not very personal on my blog, mainly because it’s not that sort of blog I want. I do enjoy lifestyle blogs though and seeing little bits into a person’s ‘world’. The thing is that often we’re only shown the best bits which can lead to us feeling some what inadequate. I wrote a post about this a while back.

I tend to be a little bit more personal on Twitter and Instagram and then the rest I keep to the theme of my blog/business.

That’s a great article and a really interesting topic. I absolutely don’t like blogs where it smells like “narcissism & desperate desire of showing off”. As you descibe, balance is the key and we as readers can decide too. I recently unfollowed a famous german blog because of this smell. Me as a reader, I want to be entertained by awesome thougths or well written words, of cause I’m in seach of a benefit, for example get to know brands I haven’t known before and so on and of cause it’s nice to get a glimpse of who the person behind the blog is (I have to work on that myself ;)) but I don’t want to see weekly instagram sum-ups or “me at starbucks”-pictures all the time – this get’s me bored and tiered.

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styleBizarre is about alternative fashion and alternative lifestyle. We stand for a cruelty-free wardrobe and life, without sacrificing the look. Live your alternative style to the fullest, and be yourself, daring and different!